Enthusiasts get hands-on experience of block printing technique at Bodhi

Vadodara: City-based Heritage Trust organized a half-day event on Sunday at Bodhi, the over 40-year-old textile printing studio in Makarpura GIDC that combines traditional techniques of block and screen-printing on fabrics. It uses contemporary sustainable methodologies of cutting down on water use and monsoon water harvesting among others.
Around 25 men and women participants including several artists from the Space Studio Artists Residency program, school teachers and others participated in the event.
Owners of Bodhi — textile designer Mala and her husband, product designer Pradeep Sinha, explained the processes of hand printing on cloth and demonstrated several of these to the participants.
“It encouraged a wonderful atmosphere of free sharing of knowledge and experience,” said Sameer Khera, vice-president of the Heritage Trust.
“The crowning glory came in the form of an immersive experience offered to all participants to try their own hand at printing with blocks on beautifully hemmed square pieces of white cotton cloth. Participants were given a bunch of blocks to select from as well as prepared colour troughs,” he said.
The participants were taught how the block is structured, how to dip it in the colour, then how to carefully place it on the stretched cloth piece, bang on it strongly with the fist a couple of times, then slowly lift the block with a finger holding down the fabric. The cloth is then hung out in the sun to dry. “Every participant took home the piece he or she made as a remembrance of an interesting and engaging morning they spent,” he said.